Trip 03, Day 1 (Day 22): Bend, Oregon, to Alfalfa, Oregon
Sunday, October 1, 2006
Starting point: 44.06007 N, 121.29056 W
Ending point: 44.01805 N, 121.13144 W
We left Albany in Joe’s Nissan truck around 9:15 a.m. and drove to Bend. Joe started walking from the western base of Pilot Butte around 12:25 p.m. I drove ahead 3 miles and waited an hour until he arrived. We were able to use a set of walkie-talkies, which were loaned to me by my brother-in-law Dave Douthit, to communicate from 2 to 3 miles away from each other. When Joe reached the truck, we drove back,, and I started at 1:35. Joe drove back 3 miles, parked, and continued walking from where he had left off. When I reached the truck, I drove ahead another 3 miles, picked Joe up, drove back 3 miles to where I continued my walk, and so forth. This is called the “moving offset” approach. An advantage of this approach is that it allows us to use one vehicle on the trip. Its disadvantages include losing the opportunity to walk and socialize (although, when you spend a week in a tent together, there is no lack of such opportunity), and the fact that the offset adds about 90 minutes to the total elapsed time each day, with one person sitting and waiting for about an hour on each end.
The first 1.5 miles of the walk passed along the southern edge of Pilot Butte, a cinder cone on the eastern edge of Bend with a road and hiking trail spiraling to its summit, and then through some relatively new commercial areas with grocery store, movie theater, restaurants, and the obligatory Barnes and Noble bookstore. Past that, the highway quickly left behind most signs of the city. Other than occasional ranch houses and irrigation ditches, there was little to see other than sagebrush and western juniper trees.
Walk rating: 5.0
Money found: Day: $.33 Trip: $.33 Project: $11.02
Distance: Day: 9.0 miles Trip: 9.0 miles Project: 197.3 miles
Elapsed time: Day: 3:24 Trip: 3:24 Project: 76:22
Significance: Beginning of Ocean Stew Trip 03
